So the season 9 player guide specifically says that members of Zhentarim or the Lords' Alliance can be lawful evil and join in on AL adventures. However, the Faction Agent background seems restrictive and not all that useful. Can you be a member of a faction without having the Faction Agent background? Alternatively, are there options to be an evil character who isn't a member of these two factions but still has mutually beneficial goals with the party?
Real thing is I just want to play a hobgoblin who has the knight background to get the squire. They're usually lawful evil at best but I'd play him to be a supporter of Zhentarim who wants a bunch of treasure by killing other, bigger baddies all for his own personal benefit. His squire is a little goblin slave (who would take over if he died). I just want the toon to be AL legal, because I really like the idea.
You have it right. You have to be Zhentarim or Lord's Alliance to be evil. You have to have the Safe Haven background feature to be a faction member, but the rest of your background can be whatever you want. The rules for making your own background are in the PHB right before the rest of the factions. You only get one background feature though so if you choose Safe Haven you definitely can't also have a retainer.
You may have to bend on your concept to make this happen. You don't have to be evil just because hobgoblins typical are. If you just choose lawful neutral (or whatever really), then you don't have to have Safe Haven.
Another issue to consider is that the Knight background is a variant rule so it's not allowed anyways. Some people claim that it's not a variant rule, but a variant background instead. I think those people are wrong (all text in the PHB is rules text), but you should expect table variation if you choose the Knight background.
Very helpful, thank you very much! Though I thought a decent number of variant rules were allowed? There's nothing in the guide that says you can't be a knight.
"Background. Choose or create a background using the Player’s Handbook or other campaign resources. Additional resources are permitted in the Adventurers League Content Catalogue (ALCC)."
ALFAQ S9
"Custom Backgrounds You can create a custom background for your character by following the rules in the PHB, but you can’t create custom background features."
PHB
"CUSTOMIZING A BACKGROUND You might want to tweak some of the features of a background so it better fits your character or the campaign setting. To customize a background, you can replace one feature with any other one, choose any two skills, and choose a total of two tool proficiencies or languages from the sample backgrounds"
So, yes you can customize your background. However, as pwhimp points out, knights and the retainer feature and pirates and the bad reputation feature are both listed as variants which are not listed under the variant rules available for AL play. However, you can fully customize your background so starting with the noble background and calling yourself a knight shouldn't be a problem.
The feature is more problematic since ..
1) If you are going to be lawful evil and join the Zhentarim then you MUST take Safe Haven as your background feature. This means that even if the variant retainer feature was available you could not take it.
2) As a variant, the retainer feature may not be available. AL is generally pretty loose about backgrounds since they have limited mechanical benefits and having a retainer that won't fight, go dangerous places, or perform actions on your behalf except perhaps cooking and turning down your bed is less mechanically useful than other choices.
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So the season 9 player guide specifically says that members of Zhentarim or the Lords' Alliance can be lawful evil and join in on AL adventures. However, the Faction Agent background seems restrictive and not all that useful. Can you be a member of a faction without having the Faction Agent background? Alternatively, are there options to be an evil character who isn't a member of these two factions but still has mutually beneficial goals with the party?
Real thing is I just want to play a hobgoblin who has the knight background to get the squire. They're usually lawful evil at best but I'd play him to be a supporter of Zhentarim who wants a bunch of treasure by killing other, bigger baddies all for his own personal benefit. His squire is a little goblin slave (who would take over if he died). I just want the toon to be AL legal, because I really like the idea.
You have it right. You have to be Zhentarim or Lord's Alliance to be evil. You have to have the Safe Haven background feature to be a faction member, but the rest of your background can be whatever you want. The rules for making your own background are in the PHB right before the rest of the factions. You only get one background feature though so if you choose Safe Haven you definitely can't also have a retainer.
You may have to bend on your concept to make this happen. You don't have to be evil just because hobgoblins typical are. If you just choose lawful neutral (or whatever really), then you don't have to have Safe Haven.
Another issue to consider is that the Knight background is a variant rule so it's not allowed anyways. Some people claim that it's not a variant rule, but a variant background instead. I think those people are wrong (all text in the PHB is rules text), but you should expect table variation if you choose the Knight background.
Very helpful, thank you very much! Though I thought a decent number of variant rules were allowed? There's nothing in the guide that says you can't be a knight.
Nothing in the guide says you can be a Knight. Variant rules are by default disallowed and the ALFAQ has the full list of allowed variant rules.
ALPG S9
"Background. Choose or create a background using the Player’s Handbook or other campaign resources. Additional resources are permitted in the Adventurers League Content Catalogue (ALCC)."
ALFAQ S9
"Custom Backgrounds
You can create a custom background for your character by following the rules in the PHB, but you can’t create custom background features."
PHB
"CUSTOMIZING A BACKGROUND
You might want to tweak some of the features of a background so it better fits your character or the campaign setting. To customize a background, you can replace one feature with any other one, choose any two skills, and choose a total of two tool proficiencies or languages from the sample backgrounds"
So, yes you can customize your background. However, as pwhimp points out, knights and the retainer feature and pirates and the bad reputation feature are both listed as variants which are not listed under the variant rules available for AL play. However, you can fully customize your background so starting with the noble background and calling yourself a knight shouldn't be a problem.
The feature is more problematic since ..
1) If you are going to be lawful evil and join the Zhentarim then you MUST take Safe Haven as your background feature. This means that even if the variant retainer feature was available you could not take it.
2) As a variant, the retainer feature may not be available. AL is generally pretty loose about backgrounds since they have limited mechanical benefits and having a retainer that won't fight, go dangerous places, or perform actions on your behalf except perhaps cooking and turning down your bed is less mechanically useful than other choices.